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mad about march madness

A few months ago my wife and I decided to get an HDTV and step into the HDTV world with a somewhat blind eye, not knowing what to expect in programming. We soon found that HDTV was great! Crisp clear and for us sports fans, almost as though we were at the game. We watched the NFL playoffs, mainly on FOX and some on CBS but noticed, that CBS was not always in HD. Strange, because the competitors to CBS were broadcasting in HD and the majority of the CBS shows are HD; but I chalked it up to HDTV still in its infancy. We then watched the Superbowl in HD (on CBS) and saw how great HD is and will be for sporting events.

Now though, it is time for the March Madness to begin, and CBS with its infinite wisdom decides to screw-up the largest captive HDTV programming event of the year. If you don’t know what I am talking about, I am refering to the lack of HDTV broadcast of the 2007 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournement. And screwing it up they are doing….

I figured that with such a captive audience they would want to showcase how great CBS is in the HDTV sports realm, but it was evident someone fell asleep during a board meeting on broadcasting the largest sporting event of the year in HD with no problems.

Me being from Wisconsin, and particularly Milwaukee, thought I would sit down and watch the Marquette-MSU first round game in HD. It started in HD and then all of a sudden it was in SD (Standard Definition) , oops, then back in HD… oops, then back in SD. All throughout the game it was like this. I know it was being broadcast in HD because I saw it with my own eyes! Time and time again this happened, and then I switched the channel… No, not because Marquette was getting waxed on the court by MSU but I could no longer stand the lack of quality service CBS was providing.

What kills me is when I have my HDTV with HD Service watching a basketball game that is advertised in the beginning of the game as “Provided to you in HD” and yet I only get it in SD. It just makes me mad that CBS is doing this, and can’t seem to get it right!

The short of this long rant is let CBS know how horrible the service is. Maybe when they decide to advertise a game as being in HD they might provide it in HD…